To advertise in The Review email [email protected] 23
THE STEWARTON ANNICK COMMUNITY CENTRE
BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE OF STEWARTON
going b ac k 4 0 yea r s or s o, t h e a nni c k c en t re was taken over by a wo rking c o mmit te e an d
t ru s te e s a n d at a v ery ea r ly s tag e i t was rec o g nised t h at t h e funding req uired to r un the
b uild i n g wa s p r oh i b i t i v e a nd ot h er mea ns o f funding was so ug h t, c ur ren t ly to east ay rs hi re .
Over these years the Centre has
hosted many big events and is relied
on by many local organisations
to hold their fundraising events;
dances, discos, boxing nights and
even the odd wedding reception!
The Centre has also been the
main base for the Annick Football
Club who will celebrate their 40th
anniversary soon. Those of us who
have been around for a while will
have their own fond memories
from being a youth club member to
attending Radio 1 events, Battle of
the Bands, Cheese and Wine nights,
exchange visits with HT1816
from Hamburg, Guinness Book
of Records 5-A-Sides, Strathclyde
Youth Club Events, Boys Clubs
of Scotland Annual Sports Day
which Stewarton dominated for
many years and many, many other
memorable events.
points on the agenda with E.A.C.
is the number of outstanding repairs
such as the heating of the facility
(which incidentally has broken down
again at the time of writing this
article), the leaking flat roof and of
course the general running costs of
the building which E.A.C. advised
an indicative figure of £25k (ex
VAT) per year to run and maintain
the facility which does include the
cost of Centre Supervisors.
The current committee recognised
that to keep this Centre functioning
and going forward in the correct
direction, it requires an injection of
new energy through more voluntary
people with the time, experience and
skills to contribute in making this
facility even better for the community
of Stewarton. To that end a public
meeting was held in November and
resulted with a number of positive
outcomes, including a few more new
committee volunteers. However
we are still looking for a few more
key volunteers so if there is anyone
reading this article that is interested in getting
involved in a community-run facility then pop
into the Centre and leave your contact details
with the Centre Supervisor.
KEY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:
General Club Secretary
People with legal experience
People with knowledge of
fundraising and applying for grants
However as many of you will have
read in the local newspaper over a
year ago now, East Ayrshire Council
announced that all Community
Facilities would be transferred into the newly
formed Trust who would in turn assess all the
facilities such as Community Centres, Libraries,
Parks etc and advise which were core to the
Trust. For those facilities not considered as being
a core facility would be sold off or even knocked
down. In essence the Trust were looking for the
current Voluntary Committees in the existing
Community Centres to take over the running of
their facilities either by leasing the facilities from
the Trust or taking on the running of facilities
completely whereby the council would sell off
the facilities at around 10% of the market value.
To get involved please call 0789029349
Unfortunately
the
Stewarton
Annick
Community Centre was identified as one of the
facilities not core to the E.A.C. Trust and was to
be sold off or leased until E.A.C. realised that
the Annick Centre did not fall into the same
category as all the other Community Facilities
that they were about to sell off or knock down.
In truth, the Stewarton Annick Community
Centre belongs to the people of Stewarton with
the title deeds currently registered as such with
named trustees. Currently the Annick Centre
is effectively leased by E.A.C. and they are
responsible for all the facility maintenance and
repairs including heating, lighting, cleaning,
provision of Centre Supervisors etc as per the
current Service Level Agreement and E.A.C.
Mandate from 1998.
Over the past 15 months the current Committee
have had two meetings with E.A.C. Community
Asset Transfer (C.A.T.) representatives and at
present the Committee are trying to negotiate a
transitional period of the transfer of the Annick
Centre back to the Community rather than an
immediate transfer at the end of March.
To update the community on the status of the
transfer process; Stewarton Annick Community
Centre are awaiting confirmation on whether
E.A.C. will accept a transitional period on the
transfer of the facilities. The other contention
If you are new to the community or haven’t
visited the Centre for a while then just pop
in and the Centre supervisor will only be too
happy to show you around the various rooms
and facilities available which includes a fitness
room and a trophy room that would put a few
senior clubs to shame!
The Stewarton Annick Community Centre is
a Charitable Organisation with